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By Josh Verlin

Park head coach Allen Brydges looked at the Upper Merion sideline at halftime and saw exactly what he wanted to see.

The Vikings were exhausted, searching for breath after going up against the Knights’ full-court press for the opening 16 minutes of the teams’ District 1 AAAA playoff first-round matchup on UM’s home court.

Eventually, Brydges knew, that would pay off.

“When we were walking into the locker room at halftime, I thought they were dead,” Brydges said. “We knew at some point our press would give us that run we needed, that little run we had–we knew it was coming, it was just a matter of getting it.”

Though No. 15 Upper Merion weathered the storm well into the fourth quarter, that press finally got to them down the stretch as No. 18 Academy Park pulled off the 53-51 road win.

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By Ed Morlock

It was not as pretty as the final score may make it look, but the Plymouth Whitemarsh boys basketball team survived the first round of the District 1-AAAA playoffs.

The Colonials beat Radnor, 49-36, Friday night at Colonial Elementary.

“I’m not quite sure what to think,” Colonials coach Jim Donofrio said. “I thought we had a great set of practices. All you can do as a team is get as up as you can – get yourself in the right frame of mind. We seem to be the kind of team that really needs to be on edge and humbled. We seem to be a team that isn’t worthy of believing it should win strong, because we lay eggs when we do that. We seem to relax.

“If we really want to do something special this playoff run, with six seniors on the floor and a kid like Ahmin Williams, who acts like a senior, to have that kind of experience, and you’re home and you have 400 of your closest friends supporting you, you can’t be thrilled with that performance because you got out-hustled on the boards, you got beat to balls, you seemed to be playing to style instead of substance. And you still won by double digits. If that continues this is going to end quickly.”

PW led by one, 24-23, with three minutes left in the third quarter before taking control of game and setting up a second-round home date with Academy Park Tuesday.

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By Matthew De George

Terrell Jones knew why he didn’t start Friday’s District One Class AAAA first-round game.

The Lower Merion forward may not have understood but accepted why he played sparingly in the third quarter. And he couldn’t recall how many shots he’d taken in his unusually disjointed time on the court.

But by the time the ball found its way unsteadily into his hands on an inbounds with 6.7 seconds left in overtime, none of that mattered.

Jones nailed a 28-footer from the top of the key with 2.2 seconds to play, leading No. 11 Lower Merion to a 68-66 win over No. 22 Penn Wood.

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The Saints poured in 36 points in the first quarter to end the Friars’ run in the Catholic League playoffs.

Zane Martin scored a game-high 26 points to lead the Saints. Quade Green added 22 points and the pair combined to hit 10 3-pointers.

John Hargraves scored 16 points for the Friars. Theo Ijeboi chipped in 13 points.

 

By CoBL Staff

The District 1 AAAA playoffs are here, with all 32 teams opening first-round play on Friday night at the higher seeds’ home courts.

Here is everything you need to know about the three-week tournament, which has no fewer than seven or eight teams with realistic championship possibilities–and a few who could make deep runs in the state bracket as boot. A full 10 teams from the bracket–which can be seen in its entirety here–will advance to the PIAA tournament: the eight quarterfinalists plus two others from the eight teams who lose in the second round.

We’ll have our previews of the District 1 Class A/AAA and Class AA brackets, which begin Feb. 19 and Feb. 23 respectively, out next week.

Path to the Final Four
Let’s take a look at each of the top four seeds and see who’s got the toughest road into the semifinals at Temple.

(click here to see the full preview)